The creation of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement was due to objective reasons. To effectively organize the actions of a huge number of partisan detachments, it was necessary to create a single leading organization that could coordinate actions.
Leading partisan detachments in the first months of the war
Immediately after the start of the Great Patriotic War, the emerging partisan movement did not have a single leadership in Moscow. After analyzing the situation that was developing at that time, it is possible to identify the reasons for such disorganization. Firstly, the country's leadership did not consider it necessary to create the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement because of the confidence in a quick victory over the enemy. Also, Stalin did not allow the possibility of a quick attack from Germany already in 1941.
For almost a year, the Soviet partisan movement was subordinate to several organizations at once. The detachments were led by party organizations, the fourth department of the NKVD, as well as the military commissars of the armies and fronts. Often there were situations when in the same detachmentopposite orders came from different organizations. Such work of the Soviet authorities introduced serious disorganization and reduced the effectiveness of the actions of partisan detachments.
Central headquarters of the partisan movement: creation
Already in the first quarter of 1942, the Soviet leadership began to realize the weak effectiveness of the partisan detachment control system that existed at that time. But it was impossible to change the situation instantly due to the complex bureaucratic decision-making process at that time. By May 1942, the structure of the headquarters was already developed. Officially, the partisan headquarters was created by a decree of the State Defense Committee dated May 30, 1942. It indicated the goals of the headquarters:
- establishing communication with new partisan detachments;
- centralized management of units;
- help units.
Who headed the headquarters of the partisan movement?
As emphasized earlier, partisan detachments were led by several organizations before the creation of the central headquarters. When organizing the activities of the TsSHPD, this situation was taken into account by the State Defense Committee, therefore, representatives of the party, the NKVD and army units were included in the leadership of the headquarters.
The honor and at the same time the difficult task of leading the headquarters was entrusted to Ponomarenko Panteleimon Kondratievich. He was born in 1902, was of peasant origin. In those days, it was mainly people from the village who were promoted to leadership positions. This man represented the party line. Chief of staffpartisan movement Ponomarenko was appointed to the position not by chance. It was he who was able to independently organize the work of partisans in Belarus at a good level almost immediately after the outbreak of hostilities. Ponomarenko's deputies were the representative of the NKVD Sergienko V. T. and an employee of the General Staff Korneev T. F.
HQ structure
The central headquarters of the partisan movement had a fairly branched structure. A large number of employees in different areas is associated with the complexity and danger of the tasks that the headquarters set for partisan groups, as well as with the complexity of organizing the work of underground workers in the enemy rear.
According to the resolution on the establishment of the headquarters, the work of 6 departments was organized:
- operational work;
- information and intelligence department;
- communication unit;
- personnel department of partisan groups and detachments;
- partisan support department.
In addition, the following structures were attached to the headquarters: a radio center, a reservist training school, points for collecting a partisan reserve. After some time, when the work of the headquarters was already well established, it became necessary to expand the staff of the organization. At different times, 4 more departments were created: political, encryption, financial (de alt with the budget of the partisan movement) and secret.
Conclusion
Establishment of the Central Headquarterspartisan movement had a serious impact on the course of the war. The increase in the number of sabotage in the rear had a bad effect on the process of providing German troops. We all remember very well that at the end of 1942 the Battle of Stalingrad ended, after which the strategic offensive of the Red Army began.
The central headquarters of the partisan movement was able to qualitatively systematize and direct the activities of partisan detachments in the right direction.
